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Great Guest Services, Dissatisfied with Camp Carnival

Sail Date:
October 2013

Destination:
Eastern Caribbean

Embarkation:
Port Canaveral

Dinner at the Steakhouse (Chef's Art) was incredible and well worth the money! We had two birthdays while on board and they went above and beyond. We dined in the Crimson dining room a few nights and everything was great. We found that the dress code was not really adhered too - not a huge thing but I really don't want to see people in bikinis and bathing suits in the inside dining areas.

We utilized the spa, as we were in the spa class. Julieta (the assistant spa manager, I believe) was so nice and informative about the products we used during a couple's mud treatment (highly recommended). The spa overall was awesome and never too crowded.

Ports of call included Nassau, San Juan, St. Thomas and Grand Turk. Wish we could have been in port longer More
and felt a bit rushed to do excursions, shopping, etc. San Juan was delayed by several hours as we had to turn around and take a passenger back to Nassau due to a medical emergency. Saw another passenger taken off the ship in Grand Turk...and on our last night saw the medical team rushing to a cabin for another medical emergency. They did a great job in this respect in handling things.

While we have been extremely pleased with the above mentioned items, we and our friend who sailed with us were extremely, extremely disappointed with Camp Carnival. We have a 5 year old and she has an 11 year old. This is the main reason that we chose to go with Carnival despite being past cruisers on NCL. We were so perplexed because Carnival touts what a fantastic program they have for kids. In our experience, the supervisors are interfering with the staff's ability to take care of the children, thwarting any success at drop off for children who may be timid due to a new environment. Samantha from Canada was our daughter's camp 'counselor' and was superb and did an excellent job in making our daughter feel comfortable. Finally by Day 4 we gave up, it wasn't worth the aggravation.

Instead of being warm and welcoming, some of the counselors came across as rude and rigid. The night we had reservations at the steakhouse, my husband had to bring back our daughter back to the cabin who was so upset...20 minutes before our dinner reservation. We ended up getting her back and she had a good time, but the point of the matter is, we had to have a huge meltdown when we are supposedly on vacation.

We have sailed a few times with Carnival however, after this trip we will never sail with them again - nor will the other two parties with us. Having activities for our child is important and while Carnival exceled in other areas, this area is a big one for us. Every day there was a snafu with Camp Carnival, including them getting snippy when they claimed to have called us for an hour, yet the phone they issued us never rang or showed a call (nor did they ring our room). If you don't have kids, it's probably great.

Sad to say, we're glad to be home. We gave them a chance in light of the problems they've had. Lesson learned. Less

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Cabin review: Carnival Dream Balcony Panorama 11218

We were in 11218 however, we were woken up the first two mornings by the treadmills above us at 6 a.m. We phoned Guest Services and Svetlana was amazing! Within 30 minutes she had a new room (11246) for us a several doors down in the same class (only one left so we lucked out). Carnival really did a poor job in terms of layout - they should have put the treadmills above the elliptical machines, which would remedy this, I believe. We paid extra for the spa cabin to relax, and definitely did not get that as people were using them all through the day. Unfortunately, two other parties were with us on the same floor and had to deal with the noise since we were the ones that got moved. (They were in 11210 and 11214).